#Symbols

“… a sign of contemporary Gestalt psychology. In the word we recognized only its external side. Yet it is in the internal aspect, in word meaning, that thought and speech unite into verbal thought.” (p 5-6)

“Enculturation. The process of learning a culture is called enculturation. The enculturation process usually progresses in stages; six-year-olds are more enculturated than three-year-olds, teenagers have almost completed the process and in many cases are under the impression that they have, which can be a source of tension between them and fully enculturated individuals.” (p 229)

“The closest one can come to understanding Japanese time is to approach via the route of MA. MA is time-space. … in the West we pay particular attention to the arrangement of objects, and in Japan it is the arrangement of the spaces — the intervals, MA — that are attended. In speech this means that it is the silences between words that also carry meaning and are significant.” (p 208)

“In recent years, research on linguistic relativity has enjoyed a considerable resurgence, and much new evidence regarding the effects of language on thought has become available. This chapter reviews several lines of evidence regarding the effects of language on people’s representations of space, time, substances, and objects.” (¶ 4)

“… English speakers prefer to talk about duration in terms of length (e.g., ‘That was a short talk,’ ‘The meeting didn’t take long‘), while Spanish and Greek speakers prefer to talk about time in terms of amount, relying more on words like ‘much’ ‘big’, and ‘little’ rather than ‘short’ and ‘long’ …” (p 123-124)

“But what is easy to say in one language may be harder to say in a second, and this may make it easier or more natural or more common for speakers of the first language to think in a certain way than for speakers of the second language to do so. A concept or category may be more available in some linguistic communities than in others.” (¶ 39)

“The fact is, an enormous body of cultural and intellectual wealth was lost irretrievably in the course of the European colonization of the New World and the South. It was lost utterly and without being noticed, primarily because it was mental wealth, appreciable only through the language which was lost with it.” (p 193)

“This principle is illustrated by the way in which we have taken our own biological clocks, moved them outside ourselves, and then treated the extensions as though they represented the only reality. … Because of extension transference, the schedule is the reality and people and their needs are not considered.” (p 131)

“M. Matsumoto, the Japanese author, interpreter, and translator, states that the Japanese act from three centers: mind, heart, and hara (‘gut’ or ‘belly’). Because of the highly situational character of Japanese culture, it is important to know which of these three may dominate a given situation. Mind is for business, heart is for home and friends, while hara is what one strives for in all things. … The heart you can depend on; the mind is always changing. It takes hara to integrate the two.” (p 102)